She's On The Money - Budgeting for Variable Income

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

Budgeting is hard at the best of times, but things get a whole lot harder when our income varies week on week. Today, we unpack the FIVE steps to nailing your budget when you have a variable income, and we answer questions from YOU, our sweet angels! Enjoy frannnnds!PLUS, because you’re a SOTM listener, use the code POD50 and you’ll score $50 off the course. Head to our website here: https://www.shesonthemoney.courses/masterclass to find out more today!Love the pod but looking for a more hands-on approach to your money? Look no further. Our budgeting & cash flow masterclass is the tool you need to help overhaul your finances for good. Join Victoria as she steps you through your budgeting and cash flow with all of the smarts and none of the intimidating jargon. Finally, if you're in a money mess and need help untangling the muddle - we've got you sorted - simply record your question and send it through to us at [e-mail] and you may just end up on the podcast! The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Managing our budget and cash flow is probably the most important part of nailing our finances. If we don't understand our cash flow, then we can't create a plan for our money. and if we don't have a plan for our money then we're like me on a road trip without google maps yeah yeah agreed and i would say it's not like one of the most i would say it is the most but yeah carry on great while budgeting is hard enough to nail at the best of times it is made a whole

lot harder when you don't earn the same income week in and week out true true g king my name is georgia king and joining me today to get to the bottom of how to budget if we are casual workers freelancers seasonal workers or anyone whose income fluctuates from pay packet to pay packet is financial advisor victoria divine v flesh out for us why this is such an important topic gee you are not wrong it's a topic that impacts such a significant number of our community and arguably even more after covid as you said it's casual workers and freelancers just like you but it's people who might earn overtime occasionally or who might run small businesses or might have different incomes based on the time of the year. Variable incomes are just so common

and need to be something we're talking more about and how to manage properly. So I saw you in the Facebook group this week having a little bit of a dig around asking some questions. Oh yeah I popped in a little post. Yeah I did. I saw you posted in the group recently about this and you had so many replies and so many questions and so I know from that that it is a super relevant combo to be having together and the reason it's so important that we get on top of things if we do earn an inconsistent income is that we need to make sure that we're looking after ourselves if we earn five thousand dollars one month but then two hundred dollars the next we need to make sure that we're not spending all of that five grand that we earned the first month similarly i know

we have some regional based listeners who work on farms and that's obviously an incredibly seasonal industry so we need to make sure that we do have a plan for our money so that we're covered in the down months we also know from our data v remember we did that census in 20 2020 yeah we did yeah we did a 2019 one a 2021 and you best believe it there'll be a 2021 one oh la la well we know from the past censuses that we've done the sense i uh that we do have an incredible amount of uni students in our community and a lot of them do work casually and then we also have a lot of students who go on placement for long periods of time yeah that's so frustrating and i know that you've got friends because I know your friends and some of them are nurses and they have to go

on these massive unpaid placements. And that is such an ask. Oh, 100%. That's a lot of privilege to be asking for, hey, can you give us a whole heap of unpaid time? Like what in the world? Entering the real world in quotation marks is quite difficult, I guess you could say. So the idea here is this chat today will help those students and all of our listeners really figure out what to do with their income when it does go up and down so that people don't fall into the mindset of being like, oh, I'll just be better with my money when I have a quote unquote real job. No, that is not the mindset.

We want to get on top of it right now. You are absolutely correct. So to make today's episode as digestible as possible, we will be breaking it down into five steps to nailing your budget on a variable income. And then in the second half of the show, I'm going to be peppering some of our community questions at UV. So let's run through this. Let's go.

start with step one okay so step one is and i've thought about this good and hard as you would know i've been yelling not yelling but i've been having heated conversations in the office being like what are the steps how do you think that we are going to make the most out of this podcast because i think that you need to walk away with tangible things that you can action after listening to one of our podcasts so step one is establishing your outgoings and discretionary and non-discretionary spending. I've said this before about, you know, normal cash flow and budgeting, but it is particularly important when you have a variable income. So, we want to get a super clear idea of where you're spending each and every single month. Not necessarily what discretionary looks like,

but what are your essential costs? Go through and list what you pay on rent, your mortgage, your food, your bills, your insurances, etc. All of those essential expensive parts of life that you need to pay for non-negotiably. It's also really important in budgeting, no matter if you're on a regular or variable income, that you establish where you're spending your money non-essentially. Think of gym memberships, getting your nails done, me when I used to get my lashes done, streaming services, online shopping, extra drinks when you go out, coffees, all of these things, while I'm not saying they are negative, they are discretionary. So if we are having a little bit of a tighter month, those are things we could cut back on very easily without compromising

the roof over our heads. So before we can map out a budget we really need to have a clear understanding of the money that we have coming in and the money that we have going out and later on we can see if our budget is suited to the amount we are spending on those non-essential items and if we're spending beyond our means then it's maybe time to cut back a little bit. Vee, I know what you're going to say next. Okay. Because this does come up in the podcast a lot. Okay, well why don't you just take it over. so v is going to suggest that the way that we establish what our discretionary she slurs and non-discretionary spending items are is to print out three to six months of our uh safe spending accounts okay grab a highlighter grab a couple of highlighters highlight everything you've spent

money on that you didn't need to spend yeah that's exactly what i'm gonna say combine that together and there you go they're your bam discretionary spending is that correct yeah absolutely not discretionary and non-discretionary I feel a little bit attacked but if you've done my online course you know that I would take you through that blow by blow because it is such an important piece to do because it really reflects to you what your values are and what you're actually on so yes that's called a bank account audit by the way Georgia bank account bank account audit and just to establish really clearly I just made it up by the way that's not like an official term I just made this idea of a bank account audit up and getting textures and coloring it in I'm sure

other people do something very similar, but I just want it right in your face. You've got discretionary and non-discretionary. What's the difference? Which one's which? So, a discretionary item is something that you can choose to spend money on or choose not to spend money on. So, that's like coffees and hair and nails and shoes and non-essential spending. And then you've got your non-discretionary spending, which is things that you don't have a lot of choice over. So, whilst, you know, we could argue that rent and mortgages, there's choice behind them I get that but month to month they're set fees that if you've already committed to them you have to pay so therefore you would have a base level of income that you

need to derive to cover your expenses for that month because you need to keep a roof over your head you need to pay your bills and you need to put food on the table so for me those are those essential items that we can't budge on fabulous let's move on to step two which is establishing your average income. Talk us through this one. So, you're right. We do need to establish our average income. We need to establish that because we need to ask ourselves what we think we're going to make and what we're actually going to make in a typical month. And the reason we need to do that is because we can't keep guesstimating. And when we have a variable income, it is so easy to get caught up and go, oh, gee, I've had a really good month. Let's go out for dinner. Let's do this.

let's do that. But we actually need to remember that that money isn't ours to spend just yet because what if we have no money or no income next month? Like we really need to be thinking of future us and putting future us first. And this is not like having an emergency fund. So having an emergency fund is separate to that. Also incredibly recommended is the number one thing that I want everybody to have. But making sure you know your average income so that you can maybe stockpile a couple of months in your cash hub and actually have that cash there so if you don't have a heap of income coming in one month you're okay that's all right it might be a little bit stressful but you've already worked out that because you're on a variable income that

might be the case and this can happen for so many people you might be a seasonal worker it might be uni break you might have gone on uni break and you're back at your parents house for a little while and you know you're not working as much because you don't pick up as many shifts because school holidays or something or you want to go on break like we need to think about everything and variable income doesn't just mean you don't know what to expect it also means you just have different amounts coming in each and every single month and that is so hard to predict so the way you can figure this out is going back and looking at your income over the last three to six months and then averaging that out by literally adding it all together and then dividing it by the amount

of months that you chose to do an average over or taking the lowest month's income and using that as your baseline and then once you have your numbers or what we're going to call a baseline you can start framing a budget around that figure and what that means is you're going to have this baseline of what you actually need to derive versus what is actually coming in on average so that we can start to feel a little bit more stable in the income that's coming in versus what might be because as I said before, it is so easy to get frustrated when you don't have enough income coming in one month. And also you can just be a bit splurgy one month if you have more income than normally comes in. We tend to forget about future us. We go, oh my gosh, it's been so long

since I've been able to do X, Y, Z. Whereas that's an opportunity in my eyes to put yourself ahead so that that feeling doesn't happen again. That really goes against human nature. I feel like every time I get paid I'm like oh my god I'm filthy rich like I'm not yeah I'm not like okay this is my opportunity to create a plan for future me like that doesn't come naturally and it's not something that normally comes naturally it is not human nature to do that that's why we you know eat in abundance like if someone put this massive plate in front of you my gosh it was delicious food you would eat as much of it as possible and that's where that treat yourself mentality comes from and whilst I totally can get behind looking after yourself and self-care I just don't believe

that putting future you first means spending all the money that came in one month because you quote deserve it I really think it's like shooting yourself in the foot and saying oh but I deserve it okay so you're saying that right now you deserve to spend all the money that you've just worked your butt off to get so that in the future you have the same problem that you had the months before where you were overly stressed you know you were upset you couldn't sleep you couldn't do all of these things because we didn't have sufficient cash flow you're saying you're being gifted this opportunity to get ahead and you want to blow it going out for drinks with girls please don't get me wrong I'm not you know trying to crucify lifestyle choices but I also think that we

need to remember that future us is really important and we really need to put them first yeah yeah that's I'm pretty passionate about this topic as you can probably tell and I mean we always talk about future you. It's why we're here is to set ourselves up for a financially free future. Yeah. Let's move on though, Bea, to step number three, which is establishing a good banking structure. Okay. This is the number one thing that I think impacts the way we manage our cash flow. And I have an entire online course about this. This episode is not about that, but I would take you through the entire structure of what I do and I actually teach you how to do it but also automate the entire thing which is honestly chef's kiss most of us don't want to do

it ourselves cool let me do it I created a tool for that money win but when you are going to establish a good cash flow the number one thing I want you to do is have what is called a cash hub and that is a centralized account that all your money comes into and goes out of it's kind of like the what would you call it like the space station or whatever yeah it's fun yeah it's not as fun as I wanted it to be but we're gonna go with it but it is that hub where everything needs to come into but you don't have a debit card associated with that account so you can't just go oh all my money's been paid I can just start spending you've got to actively go in there and transfer it to other accounts and actually transfer it to your savings to your spending to what you're

actually needing as opposed to going and just tapping away and not really thinking about it too much. So having this cash hub and side note, hypothetically, because I obviously can't give advice on this podcast, Georgia. Hypothetically, if you had a mortgage, that would be a really great offset account so that your money is working as hard for you as you do for it. But back on track, that cash hub is going to enable you with a level of financial freedom because if one month you don't actually have the income that you want to have or need to have to cover your expenses, money hopefully has been banking up in there so that you can transfer it to your spending account even though you didn't get paid and still cover all your rent, cover all

your bills and be financially secure. So I guess that really puts a barrier between you and impulse spending as we were kind of talking about before, how everyone feels they're rich on payday. Absolutely. And that's why you don't have it brought into your main account and you don't have a debit card associated with the account that you would get your income into. And that's why I have then a spending account. And if you really want me to spell it out, definitely go and have a look at the online course where I literally tell you all the bank accounts you need for what savings goals you've gotten exactly to the dollar, how much you need to put in each and every single one of them. But for me, having that cash hub and then having an everyday spending

account where you only transfer the money that you need helps you really think about the money and financial decisions that you're making and what they actually mean primo okay uh let's move on to step four creating an emergency fund no surprises that this is gonna be yeah i'm actually surprised that i ended up putting it as step number four because i'm so passionate but did you notice i swindled it into the earlier conversations about how you needed one earlier I did, I did. I was like, V, we're going to talk about that later. Don't give it all away now.

Stop it. You're giving all the secrets away. I'm not, I promise. An emergency fund should be absolutely no secret. Absolutely everyone should have one or be working towards creating one. And this should have been step number one, like, let's be honest. But it wasn't because we're talking about cash flow, not about emergency funds. But it's so important because in case we muck up the maths around something or unexpectedly run into an expense or a spot of trouble,

we're covered for it. Like an emergency account is for that. It's for emergencies. And recently in our Facebook group, we've actually had some people who have been using their emergency fund. So it's just been great. I'm very happy that you've had them. But the questions have been around like, oh, V, I feel really guilty because, you know, my emergency fund's down. It's like, no, no, no, never feel guilty for using your emergency fund for emergency expenses, because that's what it's there for. Let's celebrate the fact that you're not in debt because of an unexpected cost and that you're not financially struggling and let's reflect on the privilege that you had to just go do you know what i've got the cash for that my tire might

have blown i might have had to have roadside assist come out but i'm not financially in a worse off position because that happened to me when for so many people that could have been something that really crippled their savings ability this month or you know crippled them being able to pay and put groceries on the table like for me i think an emergency fund is really really important. Again, the amount is going to vary depending on your preference and what is important to you and how that works. But in general, the prescription is three months worth of living expenses and, you know, whatever works for you. I've got clients who have $2,000 in their emergency fund. I've got one client who has three years worth of expenses in her emergency fund.

It is different for everybody. So there's no one size fits all answer there. I'm sorry. and the last step here is step five so that's setting up our budget and adjusting it accordingly now you've gone and set up an emergency fund or you're seriously considering it which you all should be and we know what your average monthly income is and what your outgoings are we can set up a budget that is much the same as a regular budget income earner would have so there's no real secrets when it comes to irregular income and i think that a lot of people are going to be listening to this and think, Victoria's going to have the key to our kingdom. She's going to tell us exactly what's going on. And in reality, I'm just going to tell you budget, understand your

income, understand your expenses, and we can put away money for future because sometimes income is not regular and that's okay. I was actually having this conversation, complete sidetrack, but I was having this conversation with Ryan John the other day because we've just established a brand new business and a podcast called The Business Bible, which I'm very excited about, by the way. And he was saying that he has a friend who has a pub here in Melbourne and day to day, they literally just break even. Like every day, like they don't make massive profit, but every St. Patrick's Day, they make mega profit. Like they are out in the car park, they have set up marquees, they have, you know, this fancy band that comes, they do this massive

thing they make mega profit and for that year that's where a majority of their profit comes from but getting into the business they knew day-to-day we're just going to break even there's not going to be any sexy profits here there or anywhere but when it comes to St Pat's Day that's when we're going to rake it in and that is I guess a really good example and something that I found really interesting because it's genuine but that profit that doesn't just mean oh my gosh one day we made this massive profit. We can start spending like crazy because we've just done this St. Pat's Day thing. Like you need to average that out over the year and make sure that you can meet staff payroll and you can, you know, pay for your expenses and know what's coming in and what's

going out and what is a good profit for this business. And I think you need to start thinking about your income as a little bit of a business, especially if it's irregular. Like just because you've had a massively profitable month one month doesn't mean you should go and blow it because we need to protect that business. We need to protect that structure and, you know, buff it up a little bit. So having a buffer in your cash hub is going to really, really help. But at the end of the day, setting up a budget is about knowing what's coming in, what is going out, what you earn, what you spend and how that's impacting what's coming into your bank account. And from there, we're able to then go, okay, cool. I need, gee, I've worked it all out. I need $1,600 a month

to pay my rent, to pay my bills, to put food on the table. That doesn't include discretionary costs. But if I lost my job tomorrow or I had no income, it's okay. I don't really need to go out for coffee. I'll just have the Nescafe that I think's in the back of the pantry. That'll be fine. But $1,600 needs to come in. Whereas, you know, average monthly income, you might actually get two and a half thousand dollars and you want to, you know, average that out. But what if you did a really big freelance month and you had five grand coming in. That doesn't mean you go buy a new iPad and you go and treat yourself or go, oh, you know what? I've really wanted this. This is now the time to treat myself. I guess I'm trying to really just say we need to look after

future us and not be too impulsive with our spending, especially when we feel like we've been hanging out for a really big payday. V, what if we've kind of undersold ourselves a little and we kind of we foresaw that we would earn $1,600 a month as we suggested earlier but we do have that four grand month and then that happens again and again what do we do with that surplus money are we meant to invest it save it that's literally a golden question so for me I would want to say that consistently if you know your income has increased great let's talk about lifestyle creep and making sure that we're not actually experiencing too much lifestyle creep. But that's going to be up to your personal financial goals. Is your goal to invest? Great.

Then let's talk about investing. Is your goal to save? Fantastic. Let's start saving for that goal. But the number one thing I would say is emergency fund, emergency fund, emergency fund, like get that established and sitting there so you can feel a little bit more financially secure. And then the second thing I'd want you to do if you have a variable income is build up that cash buffer a little bit so that you do have a little bit of money to fall back on if one month you don't actually have as much income like what if your expenses are $1,600 in a month like I was exampling before but you actually only earned $1,200 that month I don't want you to feel like you can't make rent I want you to have a little bit of a buffer in your cash hub so no worries

I've still got that $1,600 I can make rent I can put food on the table I'm all good I don't want you to have to dip into an emergency fund because this shouldn't be an emergency an emergency is an unforeseen circumstance not you not budgeting properly so I think we really need to differentiate those two things and go oh V why are you saying that we need to have money in our cash hub if I've got an emergency fund because ideally we don't have to touch our emergency fund unless it's a genuine emergency, whereas a cash hub is going to have enough cash so that cash can flow in and out of your account seamlessly and cover your expenses and cover your bills and make you comfortable. Beautifully said there, V. Okay, so to recap, the five steps are establish your

outgoings, establish your average income, establish a good banking structure, establish an emergency fund that should have been number one still and establish your budget and adjust it accordingly do you think i said establish enough then no i don't think you did what about emergency fund should i mention that again do you reckon people got the point okay so yeah if you haven't thought about it yet establish an emergency fund heaven we will be back right after the break guys to answer your community questions so please don't go anywhere now guys please remember if you are big fans of the show we would so love it if you could leave us a little five star review in itunes slash you know write everything you love about us in the in

the section v that'd be kind of kind kind of nice that'd be nice it would be kind of kind i thought you were going to talk about good podcasts for a second and i was like oh my gosh i've been listening to a podcast yeah i've got one for you you ready morbid morbid yeah it's like a true crime podcast but these but these two girls who talk about true crime and i'm totally into it who are the hosts of this speech we give them a little shout out we should it's hosted by a woman called elena and a girl called ashley or they call her ash on the podcast and they totally grow on you like i've started from the very start which is something i seldom ever do i usually just like start from the most recent ones see if i like it but i went all the way back because i'd heard

great things anyway it's true crime podcast and i'm loving it i'm so so bingy on stuff like this when i find a good podcast anyway this has nothing to do with the show but i'm really glad that we've included it moving glad our wednesday deep dives have gone back to including a whole heap of georgia and victoria banter apologies slide into our dms if you don't want us to bant on the eps but you know what it's our ep we'll do what we want we love that from you okay my first question this one's from me um your co-host so hello hi georgia i want you to tell us how we should be investing if we do have an income that fluctuates like my good self tell me how to invest one more time v i have told you so many times to invest where i don't even like this

question anymore. But when it comes to investing on a variable income, it's the same as the budget question. Work out what your expenses are, then work out on average what you would like to contribute on a monthly basis and go from there. There's no magic key or secret when it comes to investing on a flexible income. I mean, some months you might have a little bit more, but I don't want you investing more just because you have a heap of money coming in. I actually want you to be setting yourself up so future you is okay. And then at the end of, you know, a six month period, if you're sitting on a really nice amount of money in your cash hub that is left over, then let's talk about what you can invest in addition to what your already

existing investment plan was. So I'm really sorry, but there's no sexy answer. It's just let's work out what on average per month you would like to invest, what that looks like, and let's go from there. So, it definitely doesn't mean you can't invest. It's all about understanding your money and then distributing it accordingly. And you might say, V, I have an additional $200 a month and I really want to invest that and go, great, G, let's try and do that consistently. So, that could become a part of your budget and cash flow so that in your cash hub, we allocate for that regardless of whether your income is high or low that month because we've planned. And I know that it is a very privileged position to be in, okay, cool,

set this cash hub up and hopefully sit on a little bit more cash. But at the end of the day, if we really want to get in control of our money, we need to start acting like we really respect the money that's coming in and out of our accounts. And whilst it can be really hard to get there, over time, once we start functioning in the right systems and with the right, you know, with the right structures in place, we're actually able to create that financial security for ourselves regardless of our income all right my next question here is from brianna v and it links perfectly back to our little conversation about emergency funds earlier so as a person who has a variable income she has incredible guilt around spending on emergencies from her emergency fund

no we talked about this yes watching her savings take a hit really hurts because she doesn't know when she's going to be able to replenish it so she's feeling awful and that makes her feel really anxious because she's not sure if she's going to need that money again soon for something even more important and more emergency. And that can make you a bit stressy, right? Yeah. So I guess the question here is how does she get past this? Okay. First things first, your emergency fund is not your savings. Absolutely not. We do not refer to emergency funds as savings because they are not. We are not sacrificing savings for emergencies. That's why our emergency fund exists and we need to get rid of that guilt because that's what your emergency fund was for

like let's start seeing it as a massive privilege if you've got an emergency fund an emergency popped up and you needed to purchase something or you needed to pay for something or you know something came up that required cashola how cool is it that you had that sitting there and you didn't need to go into debt you didn't need to borrow you didn't need to call anybody and ask for help like we need to start going how cool is it that served its purpose so an emergency just for complete clarification isn't like oh i fell off a hill and broke my leg and that's the emergency it can be like what brianna said here is that she really needed a new laptop for university she was using her mom's so that's a valid emergency you don't just have to be super injured or whatever

yeah no no no and it could absolutely be a laptop like i remember was it you that tipped liquid all yeah it was you you mine and my friends yeah you tipped a coffee but you need them for work and you need them for uni and you actually need them to function they're not actually a luxury in your life they're actually a vehicle that enables you to generate an income or go to university and get an education so for me yeah great if you need to buy a new laptop with your emergency fund that is a-okay it is a non-issue but we just need to start plotting away at how we could potentially build that back up again. It is not savings though. And I think that that's where we start to feel really guilty because you look at it and go, oh my gosh, I feel so guilty. I've spent X amount on

this new laptop. If you're really regretting that purchase, was it a choice or was it actually an emergency? So I think we need to think about our spending. Again, I'm probably going to recommend here putting 24 hours between you and your spending or as much time as possible. It's not, hey, I really just want a new laptop. It's I actually need this. You know what? This is going to help me. Does that make sense? Totally. I think that will give Brianna a lot of clarity. But stop feeling guilty, my friend. Stop it. It doesn't help anybody. And that's what I think is really important to point out here too. Stop feeling feelings that don't help us constructively. If you're feeling guilty, sorry, who does that help? It doesn't even help you. Cut it out.

You're worth more, my friend. Our next question comes from Rachel V. How do we go about getting a home loan or finance when we're working on a variable income? that is absolutely okay. I actually have a very variable income as my team know. And I think some of you who are keen listeners to She's On The Money know. And it's all about just proving to the banks that you are a responsible being and you can manage your cash flow. So, I think it's about having that cash hub and having your savings account set up and showing them, cool, I might be variable, but here's my consistency. I'm a consistent person. This is how I manage my income. This is what's going on. But the best thing to do here is actually have a chat with a

good mortgage broker because a mortgage broker is going to be able to show you exactly what is required. And in my personal situation, which I'm really happy to talk about, I actually needed to provide two years worth of financial statements to show them that I was consistent and I was good at what I was doing and that I wasn't, you know, irresponsible or I just started saving three months ago. So for me, it required two years of financials and it's going to be different for everybody. I don't mean to terrify you with that, but I think it's important to be honest and truthful. Yeah. We love honesty. Next one is from Emma, who's asked, what if you share finances with a partner and one of you has an income that fluctuates? Same, same. Work out your budget,

work out what that cash hub looks like, what's going to come in and how much you're both contributing to goals I think the second you work out exactly what you need to be paying for it makes it a little bit easier for you to actually go okay cool my income fluctuates but one month I've got more so I'm just going to put a little bit more aside so that in those months that I don't have quote enough to contribute you can top it up and actually make use of that money and essentially give yourself the consistency that you're craving now not to plug the course here V but we do like I did awkwardly before and I wasn't meaning to but I obviously it was gonna come up yeah it was budgeting and cash flow yeah and like I spent ages writing that course so it

would work for you guys precisely so the question here from Kira V is about that master class is it suitable for people who do have a variable income absolutely it is because it functions on that cash flow basis and the way I work it out is on your base income so the tool that I've created is a tool it's not actually me going and do this and then subtract that and do this and then follow that like i literally get you to put all of your expenses and what your savings goals are into a spreadsheet and then in the back end i've worked out this fancy formula literally fancy everyone that sees it's like wow she's she can really dance um but a fancy formula that then tells you okay these are the bank accounts you need this is what's coming into this bank account this is what

should be going out on a weekly basis. This is what's in your cash hub. These are your monthly expenses. This is what you need to be building up. So I've got a number of people on variable incomes that use the course and use the spreadsheet and use my system and love it. I heard you were one of them. We definitely recommend. We will link in the show notes. I always feel so awkward plugging my own content. Hey, you got to plug it. And you know what we're talking about soon on the podcast? What?

Imposter syndrome. Ugh, I've got that hard core. guys in i'm so ready but on the online course if you use the code pod 50 you get 50 bucks off the course yes thanks money it's in the show notes so you don't have to remember that it's all good guys perfect all right let's wrap the show there v budgeting for a variable income to surmise the whole show it's hard but it's not impossible absolutely not it can actually be really easy once you've got your five steps in place jay do you want me to repeat what they are one more time Yeah, I really do.

Number one, establish your outgoings. Number two, establish your income. Number three, establish a good banking structure. Number four, establish an emergency fund. Number five, establish your budget. And if you didn't think that we said establish enough, we definitely didn't talk about emergency funds enough. Don't leave negative reviews about either of those things.

Ah, can you imagine if people actually recommended an emergency fund? Awful advice. I will also write a little blog post for us on those five things. I would love that, and I'm sure everybody that's listening would love that too because all they got from that list that you just read out was the word establish. All right, V, that is all we have time for today. But just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge

and pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the skies all across Australia. We thank you for sharing and for caring for the land which we are able to learn on. We pay respects to Elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness.

And please remember, friends, that the advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and doesn't consider your individual circumstances. No, She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision. And we promise Vicky D is an authorised representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management, Proprietary Limited, ABN 34132463257, AFSL 339151. And a big thank you to Tony Lodge, our AP, for being a legend, for putting it together. We get to hang out or I get to hang out with her every day of the week. You, you just get to see her on Tuesdays. tuesdays thursdays on occasion and it's a joy it makes my week love your tone hey she's listening she's listening this was meant to be a recording that she got when she was editing it but she's

standing outside our studio you know what we're done here friends have a really good week bye